📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Catwell
- 🌍 Origin: A highly regarded heirloom beefsteak prized by collectors for its vibrant color and excellent storage capabilities.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), but tends to be quite manageable in height (around 1.7m / 5.5 ft in a greenhouse). It features good foliage cover, which helps protect the fruits. Early to mid-season maturity.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, beautiful yellow-orange beefsteaks, typically weighing 200g+ (7 oz and up). Very meaty with a low seed count.
- 👅 Flavor: Excellent, well-balanced, and sweet. The flesh remains incredibly juicy.
- ⏳ Grower Notes: A fantastic slicing tomato. Praised as a “record holder” for its post-harvest shelf life—it can sit on the kitchen counter for a long time without turning dry or mealy. Yields are above average, though growers note the fruits can occasionally be prone to cracking.
Indeterminate, mid-season slicing variety. Out of all my yellow-fruited varieties, it was among the very first to ripen, even though it grew outdoors in the open ground. The bush has good foliage cover. The fruits are large orange beefsteaks, meaty, with a low seed count. Very good flavor with a nice sweetness. Good yield, strong trusses, though some of the fruits did experience cracking.
A very tasty, meaty variety! Out of all the yellow-fruited ones, this is currently my absolute favorite in terms of taste, size, and beauty!
Catwell
One of the absolute record holders for shelf life when stored indoors at room temperature (on the counter). And despite that, the flesh doesn’t get dry—it stays juicy with a great, well-balanced flavor.
That is a very important metric for a lot of growers.
It’s a yellow-orange tomato, averaging around 200g (7 oz) give or take.
The yield is good, above average for the season.
The bush isn’t overly tall; it reached 1.7m (5.5 ft) in my greenhouse.
I would actually classify this variety as early-season.
I really liked it.
